Cate Blanchett at The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey world premiere (Photo credit: dailymail.co.uk)
Happy Birthday to Cate Blanchett, who is 45 today!
Cate is known to Tolkien’s fans for her portrayal of Lady Galadriel in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, where she worked alongside Sir Ian McKellen, Hugo Weaving, and Sir Christopher Lee as members of the White Council.
Born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1969 to a teacher and a United States Navy petty officer, she has an older brother and a younger sister.
After graduating from Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1992, Cate played her first major role opposite Geoffrey Rush in David Mamet’s play Oleanna (1992), winning the Sydney Theatre Critics’ Best Newcomer Award. Later, she appeared in other productions like Hamlet, the TV miniseries Bordertown with Hugo Weaving, Police Rescue, and many others. Her first major international role arrived with the role of Elizabeth I of England in Shekhar Kapur’s movie Elizabeth (1998), which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. The nomination was followed by a British Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. She earned another BAFTA Award for Supporting Actress in The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999).
Cate Blanchett starred in The Lord of the Rings trilogy in the role of the powerful elf Galadriel, and “in an interview she gave to Fox Television Network, she admitted blushingly that she had accepted the role […] because she always wanted to appear in a movie wearing pointed ears” (IMDB).
Cate Blanchett and Peter Jackson
After the worldwide success of Peter Jackson’s trilogy, her career has been full of awards and films like The Aviator (2004), which earned her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, Elizabeth‘s sequel Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), and Robin Hood (2010) with Russell Crowe.
Cate reprised the role of Lady Galadriel for the first chapter of The Hobbit trilogy, An Unexpected Journey, and it seems we’ll be able to see her character again in the third movie: The Battle of the Five Armies.
In January 2014, Cate took part in the Green Carpet Challenge founded by Livia Firth to raise the public profile of sustainable fashion, wearing “a pair of Fairmined earrings set with responsibly-sourced diamonds by the luxury Jeweller Chopard” (Wikipedia.org).
Cate is married to the playwright and screenwriter Andrew Upton, she has three sons and resides in Australia.
The Middle-earth News Team is pleased to wish Cate a very Happy Birthday!
